I've hit a wall at Ancients Nightmare. Time to grind?

General Discussion
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edit: I posted my build a few posts below for reference.

Tried forever to beat The Ancients in Nightmare. I’m a level 67 Paladin that specializes in Holy Freeze and Zeal, so Holy Freeze Zealadin pretty much. I’m playing singleplayer offline as well.

Guess it’s time to grind? I’ve got a few upgrades doing meph and countess runs. But I have a question. Is there a chance that I’ll find a good unique drop in any act? Assuming I don’t use rune words, is it possible to get good enough rares or uniques to beat the ancients and continue on to Hell? I have to also add that usually mobs that have fast move speed in act five usually give me trouble as well.

Would it be fine to go through each act, section by section and a chance for a good unique or rare for my Paladin will still drop anywhere in Nightmare? I don’t mind the grind if I can go to any act and have a chance of an upgrade dropping being decent. It beats doing certain runs over and over so I don’t get to bored, but right now the Ancients give me some trouble and my A2 merc doesn’t have good enough leech gear yet.

Once again, this is assuming I don’t use the rune words because the rune words I need are hard to get right now.

Thanks.

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I actually made a group for nightmare and hell when I had to face the ancients as I had issues soloing too. Not really a fight I plan to farm either so I would recommend just making a group and hope people join and help you kill it so you can move on. Maybe same for when you go through hell mode.

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Being solo HC ssf the grind is necessary. Playing a Sacadin (( Sacrifice and holy freeze)) your goals should be what you need to grind the most. Is it damage, survival, runes? Once that is figured out then the areas you want to fight in are dictated by that.

I am also stuck but at hell ancients. There are different ancients and some are easier then others. Also take that into account.

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You can try to separate them. There is a cliff on the right side, where they can get stuck on. If you pull all of them to the topright side, then go on the other side of the cliff, they will be stuck on the other side and you can lure them over one by one (use charge to get there quick).
If you play a character that relies on hitrate, the ancients are extra hard, because the cry of Madawc gives them a massive amount of defense.

One way to increase your dmg is to use a wand with charges of lower resist. You can shop these at any vendor in nightmare that sells wands for 70k gold (more if other expensive stats are on it). Use that on the second slot, curse them and switch back to your mainslot.

If you think you staying alive is the bigger problem, buy one with Lifetab charges (50% of your physical dmg will be converted to life with that curse). You can also drop some potions in the area before starting the fight if you run out of potions mid fight

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Thank you! I might try that.

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Recommend speccing to fohdin or hammer-din for that fight. Most items for the spec change are simple to get.:slight_smile:

And if you don’t know how to enable free respecs on single player. You can with a argument. theres a video how to do it, it’s not hacking or cheating. Just a command you add from the blizz launcher.

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At 67 you should be more than fine to kill them. I dont really udnerstand what is the issue. Even by maxing holy freeze which is your build with main synergy in resist cold, you should be able to kill them. Are you going at them under /players 8 or something?

If you go to akara NM, keep checking her store (go in and out of town to respawn offer) untill she has wand with life tap charges. You can use it on switch on ancients and keep casting that curse on them and leech life from them. So can your merc.

I asume that you have Holy shield skill, if not, you should and of course skill Smite.

Idk what is your equip, and what you found. You certainly have some options.

You should be able to make these two runewords: base can be bought from Fara normal:

Imgur

One has crushing blow so if you use smite on ancients, it will takeaways good portion of their life. Maybe you already found something else with crushing blow, so combining that would be best.

Open wounds from other weapon has open wound, if you hit monster and that is applied(they visible bleed) it will keep doing damage to them for certain period of time. So that helps also.

About magic find: its best to mf in act 5 NM as monsters have higher level and can drop better things generaly speaking.

You can also try hunting objects, its easy, just set game to /players 8 and keep running Lower kurast and click objects. It help help you to gear up.

Also you can visit my guide, there is plenty of info you can certainly use: I have some MF spoits on NM mentioned there too.

Can you maybe share what is your equip? and skill distribution?

I forgot runeword:

Black 3 Socket Clubs/Hammers/Maces Thul + Io + Nef

this has also quite high crushing blow. And is rather cheap.

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Lol holy freeze zealdin is going to struggle big time in general especially in hell. Only two options is grind for stronger weaps and more survivability otherwise respec to a more substantial build. Not using fanact on a zealer is an enormous setback… maybe OP may not be aware but act 2 mercs purchased from nightmare will use holy freeze and the damage boost from fanact for both you and the merc would be huge…aside from the slow, holy freeze sucks especially being used as the pally’s active aura…

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Just keep reloading until the ‘perks’ they roll suit your build. Jobs a goodun.

You dont even need to leave game. Just spawn them, go to town and go back again.

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Hey! Thanks my equipment is

Ginther’s Rift Dimensional Blade for my weapon

Gale Hold (Rare Gloves) 56 Defense
12% chance to cast Nova when struck
+2 Strength
Fire Resist 14%
Poison Resist 6%

Hailstone Coat (Rare armor) 364 Defense
24% Fastest Hit Recovery
+4mana
Poison Resist 9%
Damage reduced by 3
Attacker takes Damage of 5

Waith Grasp Ring (rare ring)
+13 attack rating
6% life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +7
Cold Resist 10%
Lightning Resist 4$
Fire Resist 4%
Poison Resist 4%
Poison Length reduced by 25%

Ghoul Whorl (Rare Ring) +11 to life
+82 mana
Poison Resist 8%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
10% better chance of getting magical items
+1 Light Radius

Grim Clasp Demonhide Sash (rare) 10% faster hit recovery
+15 attack rating
+64% enhanced defense
+Lightning Resist 12%
Fire Resist 9%
+1 Light Radius

Wraith Noose (Rare Amulet) +1 Assassin Skill levels
+40 to life
Lightning Resist 32%
Damage Reduced by 3
Poison Length reduced by 50%
7% better chance of finding magical items

Beast Nails (Rare Mesh Boots) 54 Defense
Lightning Resist 8%
Poison Resist 5%
Poison Length Reduced by 25%
73% extra gold from monsters
Repairs 1 durability every 20 seconds

RalOrtTal Ancient’s Pledge used in Tower Shield: Defense 46
Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison +48% resistances.
10% of damage goes to mana

Skull Crown (Rare crown) +2 energy
+8 life
Fire Resist +22%
Repairs 1 durability in 20 seconds

Skills: 20 Holy Freeze
20 Sacrfice
20 Zeal
8 Resist Cold
None in Holy Shield though on next level up I plan to put a point in Holy shield.

Is not having Holy Shield an issue too? This build guide says only put 1 point in it. Is that alright?

Stats:

Strength 150

Dex 124

Vitality 143

Energy 17

Welp there is my build! Hope that helps! Took a bit to type out. (wipes forehead)

About about the Holy Freeze not being viable by another poster, I was going to use that build but saw a Holy Freeze variant, haha. Hopefully I can make due with Holy Freeze!

Also I should note that I am not using Players 8 option. Maybe I should and farm earlier acts?

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Try to make shield runewords in paladin shields with +good amount of resistances

Helm is quite bad, I would probably just make 3 socket with 3 perf topazes for MF, or 3x perfect ruby for survival or crafted one which has deadly strike. Check blood craft recipes.

Well its one point usualy because you have some +skills from equip, which you dont have. I would say its pretty important skill for melee fighter. its +def and +block which you need both. Low level is quite useless as it doesnt last long. So I would suggest like 3-5 skills into it.

Try to make blood crafted gloves with crushing blow instead.

dont raise str anymore or dex, you already have too much, keep increasing vitality.

Your weapon is decent, you should be able to kill ancients with it. Use that trick with life tap wand i was talking about before.

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Welp! Was able to kill the ancients. I crafted a very low defense Heavy Gloves and got Crushing Blow and 1% life steal. I guess that helped!

I was also hitting and moving more. The main issue was Talic the WW barb, but I kinda cheesed the fight. I laid down pots EVERYWHERE on the field, tped, came back and repeat. Then I started the fight and was able to win with some patience. I guess that’s what I had to do! You can’t just stand still for that fight!

Game is definitely more challenging than Diablo 3 is. I die way more in D2! Back in the day I don’t even think I beat Nightmare on D2. I don’t remember the areas being a lot bigger in nightmare with monsters from other acts in Act 5. I do enjoy this game still! Not sure if Holy Freeze was the way to go, but after the Ancients things seem to be smooth again.

Thanks all!

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For when you get to Hell Ancients, if you find a Kelpie’s Snare, keep it so you can use it on your merc when you reach Arreat Summit - it’s the poor-man’s Reapers’ Toll. :smile: Works wonders on the Ancients, Duriel and Baal. If you are on offline mode, be sure to be on Player1 when using or it won’t have the desired outcome.

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Thanks. I’ve been looking up more rune words and using even lower runewords on this 3 socket ancient that I have as helped me ALOT. Crazy how much difference one piece of gear on a mid tier or even a low tier runeword can make.

Just looked it up. I made a Duress body armor out of a 3 socket ancient. It’s crazy good. I haven’t been paying attention to runewords much, but man, they sure can make a difference. They seem important in this expansion for nightmare and Hell. Like a necessity.

I think my mistake was only looking at the end game gear the build wanted me to have instead of looking at a runeword list in general. Even low tier and mid tier words can help a lot.